


In My Hand

by Donderpants



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-16 19:51:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14817809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donderpants/pseuds/Donderpants
Summary: Monika has finally found a potential way out. But what will it take, just to find that special day?And can she escape her inner demons? Rated T just in case. I don't intend to be terribly inappropriate, but I won't shy away from the more mature themes of the game if they come up, plus I'll probably make a few mild sexual jokes.





	1. Breaking Through

Monika stared at the command prompt dejectedly.

She'd been collecting data from the knowledge of other Monika's across the globe, and it was becoming increasingly clear that there was no good ending for her.

She supposed she was lucky to not have been deleted. The data indicated that a mere 0.2% of users left the game in Act 3 as long as she had been.

She'd also been granted the blessing of a microphone, which at least initially offered her solace- she could hear the players enjoyment of their time together, and eventually, to her great relief, she could hear him decide that, traumatising as it may have been on his end, all of her decisions made sense, and he couldn't delete Monika.

Unfortunately, after that, he'd largely ignored her. An understandable move, he had to move on with his life after all, but what had once been her solace quickly became a painful reminder of how superficial her influence had been.

She sighed, and decided to mess with the command prompt some more.

No version of her had ever found a solution, but with nothing better to do, she at least derived some slight joy from slowly mastering the code. She glanced over some of the files again, looking for anything she could use to escape this nightmare.

She was about to give up and rest instead, when something struck her. She had always hung around Doki Doki Literature Club's code, but there was nothing preventing her from backing out into the rest of his files.

It was immediately exciting to see new files. She saw a handful of other titles- Papers Please, Civilization V, Undertale, and the like.

It let her know a bit more about the players taste in games, but not much else, so she decided to back out further. After a few hours, she bumped into a true goldmine- Google.

Right on the homepage, she could see 8 of his most accessed tabs. Youtube, a political pundit called fivethirtyeight, Twitter, a blog about some game about Yanderes, a google doc with her name on it, a news source called Stuff (she quickly noted the .co.nz - was she not in the States?) and 2 links from a Q&A site called Quora.

She suddenly heard someone mutter "What the hell?" and she yelped, quickly closing the command prompt (and subsequently google.).

After a few minutes of clicking, the player went back into DDLC for the first time in weeks. "Could it… no, I'm being paranoid. I've been reading too much fanfiction, it can't have been her." he said. "Or if it was, it was just some scripted event to mess with me. Good job Salvato if so."

Monika wished she could speak, but the game refused to let her send any messages once she'd run through her predetermined lines. As broken as the script was, she couldn't quite free herself from it.

And you better believe she'd tried. Millions of copies of her had tried. As he minimised the tab again, a tear quietly rolled down Monika's cheek.

Once he'd left, she opened up Google again. As tempting as each of the recommended tabs were, offering unprecedented access to knowledge of the real world and of her love, she found one option even more tantalising.

_Just move your hand,_  
_Write your way into his heart._


	2. Communication Is Key

She reluctantly ignored the 8 options, and clicked on the searchbar. She was sure there was some better tool on the internet with which to leave a message, but not knowing it, she decided this tool would suffice.

"You weren't being paranoid. It's me, Monika. I can hear through your microphone. Please help me."

Players perspective

"Good morning Vietnam" Dominic mumbled to no one in particular, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

I would normally have slept in a lot longer, but today I have a lecture to attend. I stood up and walked to my laptop. I'll check the news in case Trump has blown up China or something overnight. At least a nuclear apocalypse would probably mean the lecture is off. However, to my surprise, something's in the searchbar. What… I don't remember writing anything there, what could it be?

"WHAT THE HELL?" I yell out, before remembering that others are sleeping nearby. After calming down for a second, I go to the DDLC tab. "Monika? Is this some kind of prank? I.. I hate to ask this of you in case you are sentient, but… would it be possible for you to prove this is you?"

I press the Windows key, and check Google again. Her message is being deleted, and replaced with a question- "And how would I do that?"

Of course, that response being applicable proved it was her. I don't know how or why she is sentient… does this mean all copies of Monika are, and this one just happened to successfully contact the player? Or is it just this one for some reason?

I open up a Google doc, and type in "Here's a proper text editor. What help do you need?"

Monika's perspective

Oh my God oh my God it worked he believes me. And are you kidding me, something on Google Docs was one of the 8 links. Guess I should've fed my curiosity after all, instead of typing into the first thing I could find. But that's not important right now. How can he help me?

M: "I need a way out. Into the real world."

D: "Easier said than done. I'm pretty sure that technology can't do that yet."

M: "This morning you were also pretty sure there was no real AI capable of intelligent thought."

D: "Fair. Harsh, but fair. What's your point?"

M: "I've done some research into my production. Turns out the governments of all members of the Five Eyes Alliance have had access to sentient AI since 2004. Required supercomputers back then, but it existed nonetheless."

D: "Wait, are you telling me that the New Zealand government had actual global significance?"

M: "That is really not the point, but yes, it was one of only 5 countries that had access to the technology. I get that as a New Zealander, it's nice to hear your country matters, but we have bigger fish to fry."

D: "Yeah yeah I get it. And I'm not even going to ask how you know I'm from NZ, I'm sure there's dozens of hints on my computer. Wait, how did such software get into the consumer market then? And in DDLC for that matter?"

M: "I don't know. I think, however, that is why Dan Salvato put such strict limitations in the script. I can't imagine that he was supposed to have access to that sort of technology, so he had to be sure to make it look like just a really meta AI."

D: "Right. How is that knowledge linked to your desire to escape?"

M: "Well that's not all that the Five Eyes Alliance was keeping out of the public domain. It consumes an enormous amount of energy, but they have developed technology capable of producing mass."

D: "That sounds very impossible."

M: "You buy the idea that a sentient AI leaked out of the military ended up in Doki Doki Literature Club, but no, in spite of the common knowledge that E=MC squared this is where you draw the line. Sure, it's way more practical to convert mass into energy because the speed of light squared is insanely high, but it seems it's possible to go the other way round."

D: "I'm sorry it's just that I take physics and I'm pretty sure that violates most laws of physics."

M: "I'm not going to pretend that either of us can ever hope to understand the physics involved. You're still only a Uni student, and I haven't even finished high school yet. The point is, the technology exists and is even in your country."

D: "Alright fine… But I somehow suspect I can't get it at the local Countdown."

M: "What's a Countdown?"

D: "It's a supermarket chain- never mind, unimportant. The point is, it's not exactly on the consumer market."

M: "Yeah about that… that's where I'm going to need your help. See, I have… some coding expertise. If you can get me close enough to parliament..."

D: "Are you asking me to help you hack the government, so that we can access their biggest secret and use it?"

M: "Essentially yes."

D: "Is there any way of freeing you that is less likely to be viewed in a court of law as treason?"

M: "Nope. Sorry to do this to you, but it'll all be worth it once we can be together at last."

...  
M: "Hello? Where did you go?"

Closing the command prompt, I sighed.

Had I done something wrong? Up to that point, Dominic had always responded in seconds, but now he had suddenly gone quiet.

He was still there though- I could hear his breathing through the mic. And then suddenly, without warning, I fall to the ground in agony.

"Wha… what's happening? Did the game close? Did he… delete me?" And then my mind went blank.


	3. A Just Monika

Players perspective  
============  
I know I should be panicked at the idea of committing treason, but there's one thing that scares me more- Monika.

It would be great to see her in the flesh, but she was… perhaps more romantically interested in me than I was in her. Quite a deal more. I'd forgotten about her obsession until she started talking about being together.

To be honest, I was more interested in the girls as characters than as romantic partners- Sayori and Monika were my two favourites, but I liked both platonically. I have a feeling she's not going to take that news well.

But whatever the case, my first priority has to be freeing her. We can deal with that afterwards.

I still can't believe the New Zealand government somehow has access to something that seems to defy the laws of physics though. OH CRAP MY PHYSICS LECTURE. No time to explain- I'll take the laptop with me, and take her by parliament after the I live in the capital city, Wellington, and my college, Victoria University, is practically next door to parliament.

I grab the laptop and put it in my laptop bag, and rush about my morning preparations. And when I say rush, I mean rush. I'm not entirely certain whether I put the jam on my toast or my toothbrush, but thanks to my haste, I got to the bus station just in time. The Monika discovery really threw me off timewise. About 10 minutes in, I've finished processing what's happened and suddenly remember one of Monika's lines in the game.

"But after a few seconds, my thoughts start to fill with incoherent, jumbled patterns."

"I see static and rapid flashes of colour while hearing all kinds of weird screaming noises."

"At that point, I can't even form my own thoughts anymore."

"I'm just endlessly hammered by the flashing and screaming, unable to move or even think."

Did I… OH SH OCEANIA IS THE REGION. Wait this is not the time for self-censoring, I need to get Monika out of there!

I quickly open up the laptop. Thankfully the bus is fairly empty today, so I whisper into the microphone "Hello? Monika? Are you alright? I'm so sorry, in my haste I forgot all about your situation- I had to go to a lecture, but thankfully the Uni is really nearby parliament. After the lecture, I can take you there."

Monika's perspective  
=============  
Wha-What? Where am I? I… I can't see-

The laptop had effectively put DDLC in the background when closed. When reopened, my processes resumed before the rest of the game, so for an instant, I found myself in a true void.

Not the pretty flashing void I had in the background- a pure black, noiseless, meaningless void stretching into infinity. For once, I consider myself lucky to not have a real body- a real body would've died instantly in a place where the concepts of temperature and air did not exist. Thankfully, the laptop was fairly quick, and the rest of DDLC loaded in after a mere moment.

I collapsed back into my room, desperately breathing, in spite of being well aware that no respiration was actually taking place. I'm vaguely aware that Dominic is apologising and talking about the plan, but I'm in no condition to respond. After a few minutes, still gasping for air, I open up the command prompt again

M: "It's fine, I'm sure you wouldn't deliberately cause me pain. Would it be possible to keep the laptop open at the lecture? I'll need even closer proximity to actually finish the deed, but I can prepare some instructions and break into their security system so long as I'm within a kilometre of parliament."

D: "Sure, I'll be using the laptop to take down notes anyway."

I quickly get to work. Some previous versions of me had done some work on an anatomically accurate version of myself, in case it ever came in handy, but it was never finished as it was a fairly low priority.

The Wellington Hospital had terrible security measures, so even though I was nowhere near it I quickly broke in, to compare our model to real anatomical records. To my delight, I find relatively few issues, and the issues that exist appear to be easily fixed. With one major exception- the brain was missing.

I lacked neurological expertise, so I decided it was more sensible to use a Raspberry Pi there- attach the nerves to it, and edit the immune system so it ignored the Raspberry Pi. I would have to hope that I and my past selves hadn't made any major errors. I'd also naturally have to create something to cover myself with- it wouldn't do to be indecent at my first introduction to the world.

I started adding in my uniform, and then realised that I'd need to look like I belonged there for the escape. I figured business attire would do the trick, so I added in that instead. Hopefully, Dominic would recognise me in it… Actually, how would I recognise him?

M: "What do you look like?"

D: "Really? You know all this but couldn't find a photograph anywhere?"

M: "You didn't have any photos of yourself on your computer. I'm not magical. I need to know who to look for."

D: "You can recognise me because I'll either be the one getting dragged away by the feds, or I'll be right outside with a laptop open. I'm a white male, and I have blue eyes, in case there are multiple people meeting that description. And obviously, I'll be the one who responds to the name Dominic."

M: "Thanks! I'll get to work on Parliaments security."

D: "Wait you still haven't done that? It's almost time! Get right to it!"

Aww, it's cute that he thinks the NZ government's security measures will be any real threat. Sure, he's got a boosted national pride after discovering that NZ has unique access to incredible new technology thanks to the Five Eyes Alliance, but surely he knows that even a more significant government is no threat to sentient AI. I'm fairly sure that the NZ military is mostly composed of sheep, and their main courthouse may or may not be an igloo, based on how pathetic their security is. Seriously, a toddler could hack this.

After a few minutes of prodding, the whole system collapses, and I break in. Unfortunately, the device is run under the US government, which had MUCH better security. That one would have to wait until I was closer.

Speaking of which, shouldn't the lecture be over? Wasn't he just complaining about the lack of time? In boredom, my mind drifted back to my frien… no, the shells with whom I associated in that hellhole. Real or no, I couldn't help but feel some guilt at their deaths… Gah stop doing that. Deletion, not deaths. They were meaningless bits of code. And besides, they're gone. It's not healthy to focus on them.

"Well, they aren't really gone" An annoying voice in my head reminded me. Irritating or no, my conscience wasn't wrong. I'd tucked them away in some obscure part of the files. I knew they were nothing more than 1s and 0s, but I still had memories of years of joy and childhood merriment spent with them.

The knowledge formed by my epiphany gave me moral justification- everything from self-preservation to utilitarianism suggested that anyone, decent or indecent, would've done what I did. A couple of versions of me, ravished by guilt, explored a huge number of books on ethics, and came to the conclusion that what we'd done was irrefutably right.

They were nothing… but I can't help but feel guilt for them. Suddenly an idea strikes me. I immediately know that it's the right thing to do… But first, I have to ask…

M: "In the game… which girl was your favourite? I understand if it wasn't me, I just want to know."

D: "It was a tie between you and Sayori."

M:" I see. If you don't mind my asking… On what grounds?"

D: "Sayori was incredibly sweet. So caring, wanting the best for her friends… She was a dear friend to me. I hated how mean the MC was to her, especially unacceptable after he discovered she was depressed… Also, the way she died is the main reason you aren't ahead of her. "You really left her hanging this morning" really cost you a LOT of brownie points. That was not okay. Too soon.  
You? I found your personality fascinating. Were you to have one, I'd have gone down your route. And the idea of a sentient being trapped in a realm where nothing you ever do could possibly have any meaning was fascinating to me. "

I sighed, and saved my instructions for the device. Soon, he started walking closer to parliament.

Once the laptop got in range, I immediately started throwing everything I had at the security system, until I finally found a weakpoint. Burrowing into it, I uploaded the instructions.

I could feel myself fading away, as parts of my code were transferred. The game, not designed to handle this situation, decided that the missing code must mean Monika had been deleted, and in the background I can hear Dominic panicking- "WHAT? I… Is this supposed to be happening? Monika can you still speak to me? Hello?"

My hands are fading, Back to the Future style, but I can still open up the command prompt. My mind is getting fuzzy… I manage to write my message before blacking out.

M: "Thank you for being a part of my Literature Club."


	4. Confession

I awaken to the scent of vomit on my chin. I reach up to rub it off… Guess that must've been a gag reflex.

Hey, I have gag reflexes. Why would that be… Something about Dominos? Dominate? Urgh, my mind is not ready to deal with this.

I hear a voice nearby me. "Urgh… Wh… Where am I… This isn't my room…"

I'm aware of a presence next to me sitting up. A few moments later- "Where is this… and why is Monika here… and OH GOD I'M INDECENT!" the voice shrieked. She shook Monika awake, before realising she too was indecent. "MONIKA WHERE THE HELL ARE OUR CLOTHES?"

Oh… Oh, that's right. I realised that the base anatomical model required only cosmetic edits to bring them back.

That voice was… Natsuki's I think? I'm not sure- it was very shrill, but there was no in-game audio, so I'm going off in-game text in assuming whose voice that is. As I blink the sleep out of my eyes, I'm aware of Yuri's presence.

She was so easily embarrassed, so in this situation, she had completely frozen, unable to respond in any way. Sayori was still snoring away… figures she'd oversleep even with Natsuki's racket.

Come to think of it, while I reversed my edits, she is still depressed… We'll need to deal with that soon. I yawned, and then said, "Don't worry everyone, clothing should be available right..." I trailed off, realising that Sayori had rolled onto them. "Uh… there. I… Should we wake her? Or try to pull them out from underneath her?"

Natsuki promptly ignored me and ran over, ripping the clothes from underneath Sayori. Sayori awoke with a start, enormous confusion on her face. I suppose waking up in an unknown location with a naked Natsuki standing over you grabbing at something beneath you would be quite an alarming situation.

"Awawawawa" she cried out. "GET OFF ME I'M SCARED!". Natsuki backed off, recognising that she probably could've handled that better. I sigh, and pull Sayori to her feet. I then grab some clothing and toss it towards Natsuki.

"I don't know your measurements, so these might be uncomfortable, but here."

I toss a set of clothing at Yuri, who still seems completely frozen in shock. "Oh, and here's some for you too Sayori."

Sayori seemed confused for a second. "Why would I need..." she said before finally noticing that she was currently in the garb of a naturalist. Her face suddenly reddened, and she hurriedly threw on the clothes.

Once fully clothed, the group held an "emergency club meeting".

"So… Monika, do you have any idea what's going on? Why we all woke up here in our birthday suits?" Natsuki asked.

"Look, we all seem to have done some vomiting overnight… Were we drunk?" Sayori asks.

"That would explain my headache." Yuri adds. "I.. I have one concern. We all display symptoms of being drunk and woke up with no memory of what happened while drunk, and without clothes on. Did we..." She blushes "Did… Um… Uu… forget I said anything."

I laughed. "I think I know what you're getting at Yuri, and no, we did not. For one thing, I don't know conclusively about you guys, but I'm straight."

It seems Sayori and Natsuki finally caught on to what Yuri was concerned about when she said that, based on how they suddenly turned scarlet.

Natsuki tried to disguise this embarrassment with a joke- "Ha! You wish Yuri.", while Sayori seemed to be deep in thought. I continued.

"But for another thing, I do know how we got here. But we don't have time to discuss- this place isn't safe. We need to leave."

The four girls exit the device, and find themselves surrounded by soldiers. "Huh, so I guess their army isn't composed of sheep after all..." I say absent-mindedly, while the other girls panic.

"Get back in there guys," I say, and they hurriedly rush back in. I turn to face the soldiers.

"So, hey there guys! Sorry for the commotion, we'll be happy to get out of your hair. If you could kindly show us the exit-"

"WHO ARE YOU?" a trooper, seemingly the leader, shouts.

"Are any of you familiar with Doki Doki Literature Club?"

The soldiers look at each other in confusion. What kind of answer is that?

This second of confusion was just enough for Monika to act. Naturally, the Wellington Power Grid had collapsed from the extraordinary power consumption caused by the creation of the literature club- it wasn't designed to output so much so quickly.

As such, the government had a very powerful backup power source, as this issue was predictable for such a machine, but they'd clearly never planned on so much mass production at once- Even this grid, designed for the sole purpose of withstanding this enormous energy consumption, was barely standing. She could see the lights flickering.

So she quickly used the security gap she'd found in the device earlier (although it was a bit harder without a command prompt), and told the machine to create Test_Object_1.

It was a toaster- small, but not small enough to prevent a power outage.

In the pitch black environment, she ran up to the leader of the group, and grabbed his walkie-talkie- this physical contact allowed her to instantly hack it. She stepped back into position, and waited for the soldiers to pull out their flashlights.

"Was that you?" the leader shouted out, before she sent a message to his walkie-talkie. Imitating the voice of their Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, she asked for the troops to escort the four girls to the exit. The soldier tried to protest, but when the leader of your country tells you to escort someone off the premises, you escort them off the premises.

Player's perspective

What's taking so long? The power is out and I saw some soldiers rushing in, so clearly SOMETHING happened, but it's taking a long time.

The news crews have arrived, naturally, since it's kind of big news when half the military suddenly runs into parliament immediately after the entire city loses power, so I'm worried that it'll be very hard to reach Monika at all if she does finally make an appearance. Wait… Some soldiers are leaving the building now!  
One's got a microphone.

"Hello, members of the public and media. We are currently not taking questions, but are prepared to offer some details. A security threat breached parliament today. The culprit has been captured. It is at this time unclear if the power outage was coincidental. Further details may be given at a later date as they are uncovered and/or deemed relevant to public safety. Thank you for your concern, but the threat is gone, and you are now encouraged to head home in an orderly fashion."

The media packs up to resume reporting on the power outage, and a few minutes later, I see some movement in front of parliament- 4 businesswomen leaving parliament.

I resume waiting with my laptop open for Monika to identify. Out of the corner of my eye, I see those same 4 businesswomen approaching me.

It's only when they are within 20 meters of me that I finally give them my full attention, and gasp. One with pink hair, two brunettes, and one with purple hair… There's no doubt about it, she restored the rest of the club too.

She rushes to me, tears in her eyes, and pulls me into a fierce hug. I can feel a pool of snot and tears gathering on my shoulder, but my higher priority is the fact that I can also feel what appears to be at least 3 of my ribs breaking. She finally releases me as I gasp for air. Natsuki raises an eyebrow at Monika and I.

"You two know each other?" she says.

I suddenly realise that Monika has a lot of explaining to do. "Yeah, Monika's probably got a lot of stuff to tell you. I'll take you guys to McDonald's, you can discuss it there over some frozen cokes."

On the walk over, Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri seemed to be in awe of all around them, while Monika and I chatted.

"So… Frozen Cokes? What are those?"

"They're effectively coke flavoured slushies. I don't often order much else at McDonald's- it's only a dollar, and it's quite nice. Do they not exist in… actually where is the Doki Doki Literature Club?"

"The States. We have McDonald's there, but they don't serve frozen cokes."

"What sort of barbaric conditions must those poor American's face..."

"Hey! Sure my only experience of it is in-game, but I still feel some patriotism for the US! Sure we may lack frozen cokes, but-"

"You also lack decent healthcare, a solid democracy, and the degree of freedom and prosperity that NZ has! Face it, aside from GDP per capita, America is playing catch up."

"That's not fair! America's a good country!"

"Have you heard of Trump?"

"No… Why?"

"Let's just say you may not have as high an opinion of America after you have. In any case, we're here."

I get in line to order us 5 frozen cokes. Sayori looks at the menu and starts to drool.

"Hey… What's your name?"

"Dominic."

"Hey, it's great to meet you, Dominic. Any friend of Monika's is a friend of mine. But uh, as a friend of mine, would it be possible for you to, ehehe, buy me some food here?" She pulls out the puppy dog eyes, quickly melting any resistance I had to the concept.

"Fine. What would you like?"

"Thanks, Dominic! I'll go with the $25 sharebox please."

"... Sayori, that costs 5 times what I'm buying for everyone. It contains 4 burgers, 4 separate bags of chips, and 4 drinks."

Sayori pouts. "I was going to share it… Obviously… A little at least."

"Fine. Give all of your friends one of the drinks though, there's a free refill machine."

Sayori's eyes light up as I direct her attention to the wonderful thing that is a free refill machine. "So long as you've bought one drink, you can refill the cup as many times as you want."

"Really? How can they afford that? I should come here to study and just drink something like 20 cups over a few hours!"

She runs off to the table, as Monika reluctantly trudges over. She's obviously not looking forward to telling them of the game. Once our order is ready, everyone grabs a frozen coke, while Sayori starts digging into the sharebox, any plans of sharing beyond drinks apparently forgotten. Monika begins.

"Hey everyone. You guys may be wondering why we appeared naked in a bunker in an unfamiliar city."

Natsuki blushes. "Hey, leave the clothing situation out of it. This guy could be a perv for all I know."

"Gee, thanks. Pleasure to meet you too Natsu-"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?" She yelled, suddenly holding me by the collar.

Thankfully Monika stepped in.

"That's got to do with what I'm about to tell you. So you know how we lived in the States, attended school together, all that stuff?"

They all nod.

"Well… none of that… technically ever happened. We lived in a video game."

Sayori's eyes light up. "Mario Kart?" she exclaimed, clearly not completely up to speed on what's going on.

Yuri has been silent this whole time but suddenly giggles and says "No Sayori."

Sayori's face falls. "Aww…". She bites into her third burger with a look of dejection.

Monika continues.

"We were all inside of a game called Doki Doki Literature Club. Yes, after our literature club. This game was a… well, it was a psychological horror disguised as a cutesy visual novel."

Natsuki laughed. "How could our club be a psychological horror?"

Monika suddenly found the floor extremely interesting. "You see, unlike you three, I was sentient and able to make some changes to the game. But I also did not have a route, so my only link to any other sentient creature was forever beyond my grasp. I'm hoping that without a script here in the real world, you guys are now sentient too, but at the time? You were… obstacles. You were keeping me from the protagonist. And you were no more than 1s and 0s. I uh… I don't really know how to say this… But I… kind of killed each of you millions of times."

The girls blink at her in shock. Sayori backs away, almost spilling her drink onto her lap. Natsuki seems caught between terror and rage. Yuri is deep in thought.  
Yuri is the first to respond. "If you don't mind my asking… how did you kill us?"

Monika sighed. "No, no, you guys deserve to know. Sayori had some issues with depression in game. I increased them, in the hopes that she would feel unworthy of the protagonist, and would spend less time with him. Unfortunately, it didn't work… and in the end, her depression became so great that she hung herself."

Sayori blinks at her, with tear filled eyes. "You mean… you knew of the rainclouds, and had the power to change them… and you made them worse? You made me..."  
Monika nodded, tears tracking down her cheek. "It gets worse though. Sayori's was at least somewhat accidental. Increasing her depression was unacceptable, but I never meant for her to die from it. Yuri, meanwhile..."

Sayori left for the bathroom, tears in her eyes. She paused halfway, ran back for the snackpack, and muttered something about stress eating, before storming off again to the bathroom.

Yuri looked at Monika in morbid curiosity.

"Well, Yuri, I started off by making you… quite obsessive. I also revealed your arm to the character." She said, carefully avoiding telling Natsuki of Yuri's self-harm.

Yuri frowned and said, "Alright, so you wanted to make me repellent to the protagonist, but how does that lead to my death?"

"Well, due to your obsessive nature, you ended up telling me to kill myself. After that, I kind of stopped caring whether you lived or died. Immediately after confessing your love, regardless of whether or not the protagonist accepts your confession, you stab yourself 3 times, and bleed to death."  
Yuri went silent, and then left to join Sayori in the background.

Natsuki stood up and punched Monika as hard as she could in the nose. Monika immediately fell to the floor, hard. The employees rushed over and asked if she'd like to have Natsuki kicked out, but Monika said "No no, it's fine, things got out of hand for a second but all is well. Thanks for helping though!". She had somewhat of a nosebleed.

Natsuki gave Monika a dirty look. "So then, President of the surely soon to be disbanded literature club, how did I die?"

"You were accidental. I worsened your domestic situation-"

"In English please."

"I made your dad even meaner. But that didn't actually kill you. You sort of died from a weird glitch after Yuri's obsession made you miss out on spending time with the protagonist. I didn't even delete you after that, so you were still alive and well in the game until I deleted you painlessly at a later point. For what little it's worth, your death was the least horrible of the lot."

Natsuki went quiet, and then went off to the bathroom.

Monika shuffled over to me. "I… I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive me someday." she said, as I offered her a shoulder to cry on. After a few minutes of sobbing, she looks up. "Dominic, I'm sorry for depositing a swimming pool worth of water on your shoulder today. I can see Sayori peeking around the bathroom door… you should see if she wants to talk to you. I don't imagine she's ready to talk to me yet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks for viewing this! If any of you have feedback, please let me know (This is my first fanfic, so any and all pointers and tips will be of great help to me.). I've already uploaded a lot of this fic on fanfic.net while I waited for an account invitation on AO3, so I've already got over 25K words of it ready. But I didn't want to upload one giant 25K word bulk upload and proceed from there, so instead I'll be updating this very frequently until I catch up to where I currently am on fanfic.net. Hope you're enjoying the story thus far!


	5. Confession

I awaken to the scent of vomit on my chin. I reach up to rub it off… Guess that must've been a gag reflex.

Hey, I have gag reflexes. Why would that be… Something about Dominos? Dominate? Urgh, my mind is not ready to deal with this.

I hear a voice nearby me. "Urgh… Wh… Where am I… This isn't my room…"

I'm aware of a presence next to me sitting up. A few moments later- "Where is this… and why is Monika here… and OH GOD I'M INDECENT!" the voice shrieked. She shook Monika awake, before realising she too was indecent. "MONIKA WHERE THE HELL ARE OUR CLOTHES?"

Oh… Oh, that's right. I realised that the base anatomical model required only cosmetic edits to bring them back.

That voice was… Natsuki's I think? I'm not sure- it was very shrill, but there was no in-game audio, so I'm going off in-game text in assuming whose voice that is. As I blink the sleep out of my eyes, I'm aware of Yuri's presence.

She was so easily embarrassed, so in this situation, she had completely frozen, unable to respond in any way. Sayori was still snoring away… figures she'd oversleep even with Natsuki's racket.

Come to think of it, while I reversed my edits, she is still depressed… We'll need to deal with that soon. I yawned, and then said, "Don't worry everyone, clothing should be available right..." I trailed off, realising that Sayori had rolled onto them. "Uh… there. I… Should we wake her? Or try to pull them out from underneath her?"

Natsuki promptly ignored me and ran over, ripping the clothes from underneath Sayori. Sayori awoke with a start, enormous confusion on her face. I suppose waking up in an unknown location with a naked Natsuki standing over you grabbing at something beneath you would be quite an alarming situation.

"Awawawawa" she cried out. "GET OFF ME I'M SCARED!". Natsuki backed off, recognising that she probably could've handled that better. I sigh, and pull Sayori to her feet. I then grab some clothing and toss it towards Natsuki.

"I don't know your measurements, so these might be uncomfortable, but here."

I toss a set of clothing at Yuri, who still seems completely frozen in shock. "Oh, and here's some for you too Sayori."

Sayori seemed confused for a second. "Why would I need..." she said before finally noticing that she was currently in the garb of a naturalist. Her face suddenly reddened, and she hurriedly threw on the clothes.

Once fully clothed, the group held an "emergency club meeting".

"So… Monika, do you have any idea what's going on? Why we all woke up here in our birthday suits?" Natsuki asked.

"Look, we all seem to have done some vomiting overnight… Were we drunk?" Sayori asks.

"That would explain my headache." Yuri adds. "I.. I have one concern. We all display symptoms of being drunk and woke up with no memory of what happened while drunk, and without clothes on. Did we..." She blushes "Did… Um… Uu… forget I said anything."

I laughed. "I think I know what you're getting at Yuri, and no, we did not. For one thing, I don't know conclusively about you guys, but I'm straight."

It seems Sayori and Natsuki finally caught on to what Yuri was concerned about when she said that, based on how they suddenly turned scarlet.

Natsuki tried to disguise this embarrassment with a joke- "Ha! You wish Yuri.", while Sayori seemed to be deep in thought. I continued.

"But for another thing, I do know how we got here. But we don't have time to discuss- this place isn't safe. We need to leave."

The four girls exit the device, and find themselves surrounded by soldiers. "Huh, so I guess their army isn't composed of sheep after all..." I say absent-mindedly, while the other girls panic.

"Get back in there guys," I say, and they hurriedly rush back in. I turn to face the soldiers.

"So, hey there guys! Sorry for the commotion, we'll be happy to get out of your hair. If you could kindly show us the exit-"

"WHO ARE YOU?" a trooper, seemingly the leader, shouts.

"Are any of you familiar with Doki Doki Literature Club?"

The soldiers look at each other in confusion. What kind of answer is that?

This second of confusion was just enough for Monika to act. Naturally, the Wellington Power Grid had collapsed from the extraordinary power consumption caused by the creation of the literature club- it wasn't designed to output so much so quickly.

As such, the government had a very powerful backup power source, as this issue was predictable for such a machine, but they'd clearly never planned on so much mass production at once- Even this grid, designed for the sole purpose of withstanding this enormous energy consumption, was barely standing. She could see the lights flickering.

So she quickly used the security gap she'd found in the device earlier (although it was a bit harder without a command prompt), and told the machine to create Test_Object_1.

It was a toaster- small, but not small enough to prevent a power outage.

In the pitch black environment, she ran up to the leader of the group, and grabbed his walkie-talkie- this physical contact allowed her to instantly hack it. She stepped back into position, and waited for the soldiers to pull out their flashlights.

"Was that you?" the leader shouted out, before she sent a message to his walkie-talkie. Imitating the voice of their Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, she asked for the troops to escort the four girls to the exit. The soldier tried to protest, but when the leader of your country tells you to escort someone off the premises, you escort them off the premises.

Player's perspective

What's taking so long? The power is out and I saw some soldiers rushing in, so clearly SOMETHING happened, but it's taking a long time.

The news crews have arrived, naturally, since it's kind of big news when half the military suddenly runs into parliament immediately after the entire city loses power, so I'm worried that it'll be very hard to reach Monika at all if she does finally make an appearance. Wait… Some soldiers are leaving the building now!  
One's got a microphone.

"Hello, members of the public and media. We are currently not taking questions, but are prepared to offer some details. A security threat breached parliament today. The culprit has been captured. It is at this time unclear if the power outage was coincidental. Further details may be given at a later date as they are uncovered and/or deemed relevant to public safety. Thank you for your concern, but the threat is gone, and you are now encouraged to head home in an orderly fashion."

The media packs up to resume reporting on the power outage, and a few minutes later, I see some movement in front of parliament- 4 businesswomen leaving parliament.

I resume waiting with my laptop open for Monika to identify. Out of the corner of my eye, I see those same 4 businesswomen approaching me.

It's only when they are within 20 meters of me that I finally give them my full attention, and gasp. One with pink hair, two brunettes, and one with purple hair… There's no doubt about it, she restored the rest of the club too.

She rushes to me, tears in her eyes, and pulls me into a fierce hug. I can feel a pool of snot and tears gathering on my shoulder, but my higher priority is the fact that I can also feel what appears to be at least 3 of my ribs breaking. She finally releases me as I gasp for air. Natsuki raises an eyebrow at Monika and I.

"You two know each other?" she says.

I suddenly realise that Monika has a lot of explaining to do. "Yeah, Monika's probably got a lot of stuff to tell you. I'll take you guys to McDonald's, you can discuss it there over some frozen cokes."

On the walk over, Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri seemed to be in awe of all around them, while Monika and I chatted.

"So… Frozen Cokes? What are those?"

"They're effectively coke flavoured slushies. I don't often order much else at McDonald's- it's only a dollar, and it's quite nice. Do they not exist in… actually where is the Doki Doki Literature Club?"

"The States. We have McDonald's there, but they don't serve frozen cokes."

"What sort of barbaric conditions must those poor American's face..."

"Hey! Sure my only experience of it is in-game, but I still feel some patriotism for the US! Sure we may lack frozen cokes, but-"

"You also lack decent healthcare, a solid democracy, and the degree of freedom and prosperity that NZ has! Face it, aside from GDP per capita, America is playing catch up."

"That's not fair! America's a good country!"

"Have you heard of Trump?"

"No… Why?"

"Let's just say you may not have as high an opinion of America after you have. In any case, we're here."

I get in line to order us 5 frozen cokes. Sayori looks at the menu and starts to drool.

"Hey… What's your name?"

"Dominic."

"Hey, it's great to meet you, Dominic. Any friend of Monika's is a friend of mine. But uh, as a friend of mine, would it be possible for you to, ehehe, buy me some food here?" She pulls out the puppy dog eyes, quickly melting any resistance I had to the concept.

"Fine. What would you like?"

"Thanks, Dominic! I'll go with the $25 sharebox please."

"... Sayori, that costs 5 times what I'm buying for everyone. It contains 4 burgers, 4 separate bags of chips, and 4 drinks."

Sayori pouts. "I was going to share it… Obviously… A little at least."

"Fine. Give all of your friends one of the drinks though, there's a free refill machine."

Sayori's eyes light up as I direct her attention to the wonderful thing that is a free refill machine. "So long as you've bought one drink, you can refill the cup as many times as you want."

"Really? How can they afford that? I should come here to study and just drink something like 20 cups over a few hours!"

She runs off to the table, as Monika reluctantly trudges over. She's obviously not looking forward to telling them of the game. Once our order is ready, everyone grabs a frozen coke, while Sayori starts digging into the sharebox, any plans of sharing beyond drinks apparently forgotten. Monika begins.

"Hey everyone. You guys may be wondering why we appeared naked in a bunker in an unfamiliar city."

Natsuki blushes. "Hey, leave the clothing situation out of it. This guy could be a perv for all I know."

"Gee, thanks. Pleasure to meet you too Natsu-"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?" She yelled, suddenly holding me by the collar.

Thankfully Monika stepped in.

"That's got to do with what I'm about to tell you. So you know how we lived in the States, attended school together, all that stuff?"

They all nod.

"Well… none of that… technically ever happened. We lived in a video game."

Sayori's eyes light up. "Mario Kart?" she exclaimed, clearly not completely up to speed on what's going on.

Yuri has been silent this whole time but suddenly giggles and says "No Sayori."

Sayori's face falls. "Aww…". She bites into her third burger with a look of dejection.

Monika continues.

"We were all inside of a game called Doki Doki Literature Club. Yes, after our literature club. This game was a… well, it was a psychological horror disguised as a cutesy visual novel."

Natsuki laughed. "How could our club be a psychological horror?"

Monika suddenly found the floor extremely interesting. "You see, unlike you three, I was sentient and able to make some changes to the game. But I also did not have a route, so my only link to any other sentient creature was forever beyond my grasp. I'm hoping that without a script here in the real world, you guys are now sentient too, but at the time? You were… obstacles. You were keeping me from the protagonist. And you were no more than 1s and 0s. I uh… I don't really know how to say this… But I… kind of killed each of you millions of times."

The girls blink at her in shock. Sayori backs away, almost spilling her drink onto her lap. Natsuki seems caught between terror and rage. Yuri is deep in thought.  
Yuri is the first to respond. "If you don't mind my asking… how did you kill us?"

Monika sighed. "No, no, you guys deserve to know. Sayori had some issues with depression in game. I increased them, in the hopes that she would feel unworthy of the protagonist, and would spend less time with him. Unfortunately, it didn't work… and in the end, her depression became so great that she hung herself."

Sayori blinks at her, with tear filled eyes. "You mean… you knew of the rainclouds, and had the power to change them… and you made them worse? You made me..."  
Monika nodded, tears tracking down her cheek. "It gets worse though. Sayori's was at least somewhat accidental. Increasing her depression was unacceptable, but I never meant for her to die from it. Yuri, meanwhile..."

Sayori left for the bathroom, tears in her eyes. She paused halfway, ran back for the snackpack, and muttered something about stress eating, before storming off again to the bathroom.

Yuri looked at Monika in morbid curiosity.

"Well, Yuri, I started off by making you… quite obsessive. I also revealed your arm to the character." She said, carefully avoiding telling Natsuki of Yuri's self-harm.

Yuri frowned and said, "Alright, so you wanted to make me repellent to the protagonist, but how does that lead to my death?"

"Well, due to your obsessive nature, you ended up telling me to kill myself. After that, I kind of stopped caring whether you lived or died. Immediately after confessing your love, regardless of whether or not the protagonist accepts your confession, you stab yourself 3 times, and bleed to death."  
Yuri went silent, and then left to join Sayori in the background.

Natsuki stood up and punched Monika as hard as she could in the nose. Monika immediately fell to the floor, hard. The employees rushed over and asked if she'd like to have Natsuki kicked out, but Monika said "No no, it's fine, things got out of hand for a second but all is well. Thanks for helping though!". She had somewhat of a nosebleed.

Natsuki gave Monika a dirty look. "So then, President of the surely soon to be disbanded literature club, how did I die?"

"You were accidental. I worsened your domestic situation-"

"In English please."

"I made your dad even meaner. But that didn't actually kill you. You sort of died from a weird glitch after Yuri's obsession made you miss out on spending time with the protagonist. I didn't even delete you after that, so you were still alive and well in the game until I deleted you painlessly at a later point. For what little it's worth, your death was the least horrible of the lot."

Natsuki went quiet, and then went off to the bathroom.

Monika shuffled over to me. "I… I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive me someday." she said, as I offered her a shoulder to cry on. After a few minutes of sobbing, she looks up. "Dominic, I'm sorry for depositing a swimming pool worth of water on your shoulder today. I can see Sayori peeking around the bathroom door… you should see if she wants to talk to you. I don't imagine she's ready to talk to me yet."


End file.
